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Class action settlements are complicated affairs. They can take months or even years to negotiate, followed by months to send notice and obtain trial court approval, and months or years longer if an approval order is...more
The author presented the following paper at the 2020 Class Actions National Institute of the American Bar Association. What makes mediating a class action different from mediating an individual case? In both settings,...more
On September 17, 2020, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit issued a bombshell decision: A court may not award an incentive fee to a class representative. This is surprising, if not shocking, as it is standard...more
In a split decision, the Eleventh Circuit rejected a $6,000 incentive award for the named plaintiff in a TCPA class action. According to the majority in Johnson v. NPAS Solutions, LLC, U.S. Supreme Court precedent prohibits...more
Seyfarth Synopsis: Incentive awards for class representatives are impermissible, according to a ground-breaking decision last week by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit. Though not an employment case, the...more
It is not atypical for class actions to be brought seeking damages that can be characterized as nominal in nature. An oftentimes powerful incentive for potential class representatives to put their names on a putative class...more
You need to read Johnson v. NPAS Solutions, LLC. This recent decision from the 11th Circuit fundamentally changes the rules of obtaining approval for class action settlements. Johnson’s introduction emphasizes that the...more
This week, an Eleventh Circuit panel, in a 2-1 decision, reversed the approval of an incentive payment to the named plaintiff, calling the payment an unauthorized bounty. The case involved a Telephone Consumer Protection Act...more
For years, class action settlements typically have included incentive payments to named plaintiffs. The payments usually represent a very small percentage of the overall settlement payout, and are designed to compensate named...more
In Part 1 of this series, I explained the role of defense counsel in class action settlements. In this Part 2, I will explore the role of class counsel. I embark on this journey with some trepidation, because as a defense...more
We have been talking about Frank v. Gaos, (No. 17-961), since the U.S. Supreme Court decided to tackle the extreme case of the use of the cy pres doctrine in the context of class action cases. The settlement is a cy pres-only...more
On October 3, the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the district court’s approval of a class settlement, an award of attorney’s fees to class counsel, and the provision of an incentive award for the class...more
Former U.S. District Judge Gerald Rosen, the Special Master appointed to investigate alleged improper billing by class plaintiffs’ firms in Arkansas Teacher Retirement System v. State Street Bank and Trust Company,...more
The amendment of Wis. Stat. section 803.08, which takes effect July 1, 2018, modernizes and brings needed clarity to class action practice in Wisconsin state courts. Precedent from the federal courts should help guide...more
Have the GOP’s Hopes for Enacting the Fairness in Class Action Litigation Act Been Dashed? – Passed in March 2017 by the U.S. House of Representatives, the Fairness in Class Action Litigation Act of 2017, H.R. 985, has...more
On December 21st, the Wisconsin Supreme Court entered an order adopting proposed amendments to Wisconsin’s class action procedures in state court actions, which are “intended to align [the state rule] with the federal class...more
In a case that reveals the darker aspects of what can sometimes be an ugly competition for the class counsel role, the Eleventh Circuit rendered an opinion last week finding that a group of plaintiffs were entitled to...more
As class action litigation has continued to proliferate, we have seen efforts to rein in the perceived abuses of the system on multiple fronts. Over a decade ago, Congress passed the Class Action Fairness Act of 2005 (CAFA)...more
On February 9, 2017, the House Judiciary Committee by a vote of 19-12 passed the Fairness in Class Action Litigation Act of 2017, a bill that would make significant changes to the procedures for class actions in federal...more
Seyfarth Synopsis: As profiled in our recent publication of the 13th Annual Workplace Class Action Litigation Report, the U.S. Supreme Court’s rulings have a profound impact on employers and the tools they may utilize to...more
A few weeks ago, the Duke Law Center for Judicial Studies held a conference on class action settlements in San Diego, to discuss best practices in the wake of the likely Rule 23 amendments. Like all of its conferences, this...more
The Southern District of California rejected a pre-certification class settlement because it provided for an inadequate coupon payment and a tenuous cy pres award, and included a clear sailing attorney fee provision....more
The North Carolina Court of Appeals considered for the first time whether it is legal in a class action settlement agreement for one party to agree to pay the other’s attorneys’ fees and expenses. The court concluded that it...more
WHAT IS THE DEFINITION OF CLASS/COLLECTIVE ACTIONS IN YOUR JURISDICTION? ARE THEY POPULAR AND WHAT ARE THE CURRENT TRENDS? Definition of class/collective actions - In the US, a class action is a form of...more
As I’ve done in past years, this post and the next one will summarize some takeaways I gleaned from this year’s DRI Class Action Seminar. Impact of Dart Cherokee: Nowell Berreth, who argued this case in the Supreme...more